Delhiites are facing increasingly toxic air quality each day, with pollution levels crossing the 400 mark in several parts of the city on Saturday, making the national Capital one of the most polluted cities in the country.
Chief Minister Rekha Gupta has also urged people to opt for carpooling and travel with others so as to reduce emissions from their vehicles. The Chief Minister has also recommended using public transport like metros more frequently.
She has further appealed to private firms to give more preference to work-from-home arrangements given the poor air quality in the Capital. In view of the rising air pollution in the capital, the Chief Minister had earlier decided to change the working hours of the offices of the Delhi Government and the Delhi Municipal Corporation.
This decision has been taken as a precautionary measure to prevent pollution, ensuring that the pressure of vehicles on the roads does not increase all at once and the traffic load is evenly distributed, thereby reducing pollution levels, according to the release.
The 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI), reported at 4 pm every day, stood at 361 on Saturday, placing Delhi in the ‘red zone’ and making it the second most polluted city in the country, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). PM2.5 and PM10 remained the key pollutants on Saturday.
According to the Decision Support System (DSS) for air quality forecasting, stubble burning contributed around 30 per cent to Delhi’s pollution, while the transport sector accounted for 15.2 per cent on Sunday.
Several parts of the city recorded pollution levels in the ‘severe’ category. These include Alipur (417), ITO (408), Punjabi Bagh (404), Nehru Nagar (407), Patparganj (403), Ashok Vihar (402), Sonia Vihar (401), Jahangirpuri (409), Rohini (408), Vivek Vihar (415), Narela (412), Wazirpur (424), Bawana (424), Chandni Chowk (400) and Burari Crossing (420).
Meanwhile, Congress MP Shashi Throor on Saturday took a dig at the deteriorating air quality of Delhi by sharing an old post on social media about Delhi air pollution and calling it relevant. Tharoor took to his X handle and posted an image which read “Kab tak zindagi kaatoge cigarette bidi aur cigar mein? Kuch din to guzaro Delhi_NCR mein. (How long will you spend your life on cigarettes, bidis, and cigars? Spend a few days in Delhi-NCR instead!”)
Along with this, Tharoor also wrote a caption saying, “Six years of indifference later, this post remains sadly, frustratingly relevant still…” Tharoor posted this image back in November 2019 and recently reshared it.
As to the period he refers to, while the Centre is ruled by the BJP for over a decade now, the AAP was mostly in power in Delhi in this period before losing the Delhi state election to the BJP in early 2025.
In the NCR region, Noida recorded an AQI of 354, Greater Noida 336, and Ghaziabad 339, all falling in the ‘very poor’ category, according to CPCB data. On Friday, Delhi recorded an AQI of 322, ranking first among the most polluted cities in the country.
Satellite data showed 100 stubble-burning incidents in Punjab, 18 in Haryana and 164 in Uttar Pradesh on Friday.
The Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi has predicted that the city’s air quality will remain in the ‘very poor’ category over the next few days. Since Diwali, the national capital’s air quality has consistently remained ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’, occasionally slipping into the ‘severe’ zone.
The Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi has predicted that the city’s air quality will remain in the ‘very poor’ category over the next few days
